Did you guys actually read my post ?

I never said there is no tribalism in Nigeria. I said tribalism does not affect Nigerian elections to the extent that it does in Kenya.

In Kenya elections are 95% about ethnicity and building tribal blocks. And only about 5% about issues. This means that Kenyans will defend a member of their ethnic group who happens to be the president no matter how lousy he is at his job.

More importantly It means Kenyans cannot hold their leaders accountable. Even if a leader does nothing about corruption, insecurity, joblessness etc, he will still be re-elected simply by building tribal blocks.

Nigerian politics has some tribalism in it but to a far less extent. Consider the fact that Goodluck Jonathan won the election in 2011. Yet he belongs to an ethnic group that is the equivalent of Taita or Pokomo in Kenya.

This means that Naijas from the larger ethnic groups like Yoruba and Igbo are capable of putting their tribalism aside and voting for a better candidate. There were Igbos and Yorubas in the 2011 election but they were ignored by their own people in favor of Jonathan.

And when you look at the Nigerian elections now, those who are unhappy with Jonathan are focusing on his inability to tame Boko-Haram and to deal with oil theft and corruption. Nigerians are actually making an attempt to vote on issues. You dont read stories of a Yoruba block or a Kanuri block or anything.

One issue worth noting is that the seeds of tribalism in Naija were actually planted by the British. The divide and rule strategy you read about in history class was the real deal in Naija. In fact the British also played a key role in fomenting the Naija civil war.

In Kenya on the other hand , the seeds of tribalism were planted by Kenyatta. It is he who created a siege mentality among his people that anyone who opposed his rule was a traitor.

In Tanzania, tribalism does not exist because Nyerere put his foot down and refused to allow it. Even in Uganda there is far less tribalism in elections. Bugand

At some point we as Kenyans have to admit that our tribalism is holding us back.

Every prominent politician in Kenya who succeeded has cultivated tribalism. The curse of Kenya is that politicians who attempted to break this mold ended up sidelined or killed. So we have Pinto, Mboya, JM Kariuki, Ronald Ngala, Masinde Muliro, Ouko, Matiba............ All of whom would have made excellent leaders. In those days people were brave enough and principled enough to criticize a president who was from their own ethnic group.

Its very unfortunate that Matiba was the most competent cabinet minister, was not tribalistic and risked his life fighting for multi-party democracy ended up never being president.

Instead we ended up with Kibaki who was the exact opposite of Matiba: Lazy, tribalistic, un-principled and never fought for multi-party demcocracy. If you critically look at Kibaki's resume prior to 2002, you will realize he never should have been president. But he rose to power only because of his ethnicity.

And he was able to cling to power and in 10 years was never held accountable. Instead we have rewarded him with a generous pension and the 500m house. Yet this is money that could be used for development. Something is wrong with this picture.

Case Study : Olesegun Obasanjo vs Daniel Arap Moi

Obasanjo a Yoruba won the 1999 elections by sweeping votes in Igbo land and among the Hausa and Fulani. He ended up winning with 62% of the vote. This happened because Nigerians wanted to reward him: He was the first military ruler of Nigeria to hand power back to a civilian. His resume was superb and credentials very good. He was not a tribal chief. In fact his own Yoruba people did not vote for him en masse. It was the Igbo and the muslim North who did.

Result: Prior to Obasanjo, Nigeria GDP was growing at an anaemic rate of 2-3 %. Under Obasanjo it grew to 6% and has been growing at a rapid clip since then. Even during the global recession, Nigeria has been growing rapidly. Obasanjo traversed the globe to curry favor with the west. He was rewarded as the west sent record FDI inflows into Nigeria.

Nigerians were rewarded for voting for the best candidate regardless of ethnicity.

An average Nigerian is a hustler who wants to make money any which way and will vote for whichever candidate makes it easier for him to hustle.

Meanwhile what was happening in Kenya ?

Moi trounced the opposition twice in 1992 and 1997 because every ethnic groups wanted to win based on tribe and could not imagine the thought of a member of a different tribe other than your own winning. So Wamalwa , RAO, Kibs, Ngilu et al flew in different directions handing Moi easy victories.

Moi for his part convinced smaller tribes that a win by certain tribes would lead to discrimination. They voted for him not because he was a good candidate but because he convinced them that tribal interests outweigh the prosperity of the country

Result: While Nigeria GDP was growing at over 6%, Kenya's GDP actually contracted during Moi's last years.

Thank you tribalism and tribal voting. It has been Kenya's biggest impediment since the 1960s

Chineke
dint know we had many oga experts in wazua